Improved AI Culture Selection

[_A_]

This mod adjusts the AI culture selection to achieve better variety that is more suited to their persona. The mod allows AI characters to pick cultures that match their persona instead of always choosing the Harappans, Myceneans, and Nubians. 

In the vanilla game, the AIs choose a culture based on five factors:
1. The AI character's persona traits
2. Their willingness to transition or transcend
3. Whether the AI has exploited strategic resources necessary for the EU of the culture
4. Whether the culture has already been picked
5. Whether the culture has a naval EU or not

This mod addresses #3 (the primary factor that skews the AI's choice and makes them always pick the same few cultures) and #5.

In the vanilla game, AIs won't select cultures that have EU's that require strategic resource they haven't exploited yet. This mod removes that bias when picking Ancient Era cultures and reduces it in later eras. Further, AIs consider resources in their own territory that they have not yet been able to exploit or buy through trade. AIs also avoid maritime cultures. This mod will allow AIs to select cultures with a naval EU if they own coastal territory.

This mod will work alone or in combination with the Choose Any Culture mod. If you have the latter, the AIs will consider a duplicate culture but weight it less favorably.

If you have this mod installed and enabled it will run. You do not need to select it in a menu at the start of the game.

If you have any questions about this mod or suggestions for improvement, please post in the thread below.

This mod uses BepInEx and will not modify your game files. You can install the mod manually by placing it in your BepInEx plugins folder, but the easiest way to install the mod is using the Humankind Mod Tool: Instructions for Windows HERE and for Mac HERE.


  Improved AI Culture Selection 1.0.0.1.zip (Size: 12.16 KB / Downloads: 902)

Change Notes:
Version 1.0.0.1 (November 3, 2021):
Fixed an error that occurred when not using the "Allow Duplicate Cultures" mod.

[Rymy]

Hi! This is not exactly an improvement suggestion, but I'm rather suggesting a separate mod based on the ideas of this one. Many players, including me, have voiced their dissatisfaction with historically unaccurate culture progressions that AI produces. I wondered if it'd be possible to do the following:



1. Neolithic AI chooses their Ancient culture based on the standard factors and the improved conditions from your mod

2. From there on each AI only has certain historically reasonable options to choose from. Some of them are more likely to get picked because they are more historically in line, while others are less likely. If no historical cultures are available the AI would transcend.



I made an Excel with my views on the historical progressions. Some corners had to be cut as there are major gaps between some cultures. Check it out if you're interested!
https://1drv.ms/x/s!AqKYf2SSSDXGadU8DaK2...U?e=P05ooa

[_A_]

Hi! This is not exactly an improvement suggestion, but I'm rather suggesting a separate mod based on the ideas of this one. Many players, including me, have voiced their dissatisfaction with historically unaccurate culture progressions that AI produces. I wondered if it'd be possible to do the following:



1. Neolithic AI chooses their Ancient culture based on the standard factors and the improved conditions from your mod

2. From there on each AI only has certain historically reasonable options to choose from. Some of them are more likely to get picked because they are more historically in line, while others are less likely. If no historical cultures are available the AI would transcend.



I made an Excel with my views on the historical progressions. Some corners had to be cut as there are major gaps between some cultures. Check it out if you're interested!
https://1drv.ms/x/s!AqKYf2SSSDXGadU8DaK2...U?e=P05ooa

That is a great idea. Right now, we are working on a few other things, but after those are done, we would be happy to look at this. Thank you for providing the excel file with the culture transitions.

[dylan73]

Hi! This is not exactly an improvement suggestion, but I'm rather suggesting a separate mod based on the ideas of this one. Many players, including me, have voiced their dissatisfaction with historically unaccurate culture progressions that AI produces. I wondered if it'd be possible to do the following:



1. Neolithic AI chooses their Ancient culture based on the standard factors and the improved conditions from your mod

2. From there on each AI only has certain historically reasonable options to choose from. Some of them are more likely to get picked because they are more historically in line, while others are less likely. If no historical cultures are available the AI would transcend.



I made an Excel with my views on the historical progressions. Some corners had to be cut as there are major gaps between some cultures. Check it out if you're interested!
https://1drv.ms/x/s!AqKYf2SSSDXGadU8DaK2bP-vZ0U?e=P05ooa


Hi - I support this idea (I thought of this, too), and hope that some day this will be a mod!

[Enchanteur]

This mod is a must have. It should be in the game directly.

[rsrlawman]

Hi thanks for creating this! I'm using it with Gedemon's True Culture Location mod to improve the chance that a culture will pick a new culture instead of transcending. It helps, but I still notice the AI transcending when they could pick another culture. Is there any way to update the mod so that the AI chooses to transcend only if they have no available new culture to choose from?

[_OM_]

Hi rsrlawman, currently, improved AI culture selection largely depends on AI persona elements. For example, there is an archetype "committed" that I think may be one which causes the AI to tend to transcend. Also, some persona elements make the AI favor a certain type of culture over others. If the AI prefers a culture type that is unavailable and their current culture is one they favor, this, too, could cause the AI to transcend. I hesitate to simply remove these tendencies because they're the one bit of "flavor" (if you will) the poor AIs have in this game. We can look into making an option (even if it's two flavors of the same mod) that causes AIs to never transcend unless there is absolutely no other choice. This way players who want the AI persona to have an effect and players who don't want the AIs to transcend will both be happy.